How to be Afraid of Nothing
by Scarabbug
Summary: What’s a little mind control between friends? A short one shot.


**One shot, brief, but fun. I wanted to get back into the Spyro mood for the next chapter of another fic. No beta. Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit appreciated. **

**NB, the opening line of this fic is semi-gacked (since it's not really the same line) from a YugiOh fanfiction by a writer of the penname _Scribbler_. She can be found on this site. The line is not an entire gack and I mean no disrespect by utilising a varied form of it here. The rest of the work is entirely of my own creation (except in the respects of it being a fanfic, of course.) **

* * *

How to be Afraid of Nothing.

Killing Spyro was not an option.

Bianca had this written in bright purple everlasting ink on a little slip of paper in her spell almanac, so it had to be true.

Keeping Spyro alive was a priority. It didn't matter that she was exceptionally annoyed with him at the moment. It didn't matter that he was doing his best to make the task as difficult for her as possible. It didn't even matter that she had burns across the back of her legs and hands because of him. Stopping Spyro from doing himself any further harm, in spite of everything was the most important thing Bianca could do right now. It was also a lot easier said than done.

'Spyro, listen I–eep!'

Bianca dodged. In the last two and a half minutes, she'd been doing a lot of that, and Spyro hadn't been doing a great deal of listening. She already had two large slashes in her cloak due to a close encounter with his horns, and she could smell the fur on the back of her hands singeing.

'C-come on, dragon, I know you don't really want to do this!'

It wasn't that Bianca had ever been really _afraid_ of Spyro; it was more the fact that _he_ was never afraid, of anything at all, which... bothered her. He'd take on the sorceress with the same gusto as he would a Rhynoc, or a Dinobeast, or a flying sheep (yes, they were a hazard). He'd skateboard off the Enchanted Ridge cliff faces and laugh. He'd dodge electrical projectiles while grinning. She'd seen him have a practise match with Hunter once and actually _reflect_ the arrows Hunter shot. A training round she'd had with Spyro herself had resulted in Elora leaping between them with her arms outstretched trying to stop the fireballs flying. She'd probably thought they were having a real battle or something.

'I... oh-kay, so maybe you _do_ want to do this.'

Nobody, Bianca had decided a long time ago, could possibly face up to all the things that Spyro did every single day and never feel the least bit afraid.

And yet somehow, Spyro did it.

And right now. With a magic Talisman attached to his throat, his eyes blank of all the cockiness and compassion that had made him Spyro in the first place, and his claws, teeth and fire breath all pointed firmly in her direction, that fearless nature was pretty much terrifying.

He was also fast. Extremely fast. A number of times he charged at her, and Bianca barely managed to get out of the way in time.

'Spyro, listen to me, you _know_ me, and I know you, you wouldn't—'

_Slash, dodge_. Another nice new rip in Bianca's cloak, a handful of crystal magic in his face made Spyro back off just long enough for Bianca to regain her footing. 'Spyro, stop it!'

The dragon in question paid her request no heed, and Bianca was forced to go rainbow, for a minute, dart across his head and reform a few feet away from him. Her skin was still mostly made out of light and transparent particles when Spyro turned and sent a fireball flying in her direction. She ducked.

Obviously, it hadn't been her idea to come out here in the first place. Actually, Hunter had had something to do with it. Something about Elora telling him there had been signs of Talisman-related magic showing up in the Dino Mines. Since Talismans were exceedingly rare, and usually only found in the world of Avalar, Spyro and Bianca had been dispatched to the Dino Mines to investigate.

The first thing they had learned was that, unbelievable as it might sound, there indeed was a talisman located in the Dino Mines. A very old and presumably exceptionally powerful talisman in the shape of a golden watch, which had obviously been hidden away for the safety of everyone concerned.

The second thing they had learned was that a clan of Rhynoc bandits had managed to get a hold of the aforementioned magical item and had been working on discovering exactly what its power was for the last few days.

The third thing that they learned was that charging directly at the Rhynoc which was _holding_ the aforementioned magical talisman when you had no idea what it did was a really, really bad idea.

The fourth thing they had discovered was that the Talisman's special ability was Mind Control.

Just _wonderful_.

Darned mind control. There was a reason that such magic had been outlawed in over thirty-six realms out of forty. They just happened to be in one of the four that didn't at the time, not that that would've made any difference. It wasn't as if the Dino Mine's sheriff was worth his salt. He had made a break for it as soon as he realised the Dinosaurs were on the loose with a Talisman. funny, she had always remembered him being a lot braver than that. Maybe he'd lost some of his nerve since that time she'd gotten the dinosaurs to lock him up in his own jail...

There were days Bianca really regretted ever working for the sorceress. Regretted it more than usual, that was.

And to think, just earlier this week Agent Nine had been having a little debate with the professor about who would win in a fight between Spyro and Bianca. At the time, she'd been just a little bit irked that everyone seemed to choose Spyro. Now, however...

Not that she was doing incredibly _badly_. In fact, that was really part of the problem. She'd already hit him three times, with three different throwing spells of varying intensity. Sparx, who always seemed to hang about until things got rough, had disappeared on the third shot. It was interesting for her to discover exactly how that little connection Spyro and his dragonfly had with each other worked, but now was not the time for Bianca to be indulging her spiritual curiosities.

So far she'd thrown pretty much every elemental oriented spell she could at him. Electricity was particularly effective, and even seemed to counteract the talisman for a very short while, but they had never been her forte. Fire spells were absolutely useless, and water just annoyed him even more. There was practically nothing here that she could use for a transmutation spell and besides, the creatures she usually created with those had a tendency to rush around destroying everything in their path. She wanted to stop Spyro. Emphasis on _stop_, not destroy him and demolish the entire mine.

_'So anyway, it's in that area and we've just got to go dig it out, store it, and find some way to get it back to Avalar without it blowing up on us or something, right?' _

_'Don't look at me, I've never dealt with Talismans before, but from what I hear I'm not going to be a fan of them.' _

_'Man, for a lady who worked for the sorceress and threw out giant bunny-monsters every second day, you sure are edgy when it comes to magi__c, aren't ya?'_

_'Maybe that's because I know what to expect with them a little more than you do, dragon.'_

_'Yeah? So __enlighten me. W__hat _should_ I be __expecting?__'_

_'Everything you couldn't possibly think of.'_

_'Huh?'_

_'See what I mean__' _

_'__Ha-_ha_. Very funny. Come on, already, the portal's __open__.'_

The part of Spyro that he didn't often admit to was the fact that he was _vulnerable_. In a magical sense, young dragons could normally be disabled very easily because they were so bound to the power of their dragonflies. Knock out that magic and you knocked out the dragon. Spyro happened to have a lot more spunk and determination than most young dragons, even under mind control, but hit him the right number of times and even he wouldn't be able to take it. And his dragonfly was gone now, drawn away by whatever force compelled them. One more hit in the right place would probably take Spyro out now.

The problem was that it was starting to look as if Bianca would have to do just that if she wanted out of here in one piece.

'I don't want to hurt you... don't make me, _please_.'

_'So what exactly do they do; these talismans__?' _

_'__I__t kinda depends which one you're using. There's the Golden Picka__x__e for one thing, Hunter nearly started an earthquake with that once.' _

_'Nice. What about the others__' _

_'W__ell __there's__ the __Enchanted Shell;__ I think that one's supposed play music, or something...'_

_'What's so magical about that?'_

_'Depends who's playing it. And there's the __S__tone __I__dol, which is supposed to let you call up a god__ or something. The Glass Anchor can turn light into weight...'_

_'What?'_

_'You know, light into weight. You're the sorceress around here; _you_ tell me what it means. Oh__ and __there's the Jade Bomb__, too.__'_

_'No prizes for guessing what that one does.__ And all __the__ Talismans can be used by anyone at all? Even if they don't have magic?__'_

_'I think so__O__r at least Elora could use 'em fine__. Better than Zoe could, in fact, and Faun's have no magic at all.__' _

_'And we're just trying to track down one of these incredibly powerful amulets which happens to have fallen into the hands of a bunch of Rhynocs?'_

_'Not _just_ a bunch of Rhynocs. A bunch of Rhynocs with a collective IQ of three__.'_

_How __is that__ any different from normal __Rhynocs?__' _

_'Normally their IQ is in the minuses.' _

_'Oh, so these are the _smart_ variety__. Why didn't you say so? In that case we're _definitely_ doomed.'_

_'Heh heh.' _

Spyro charged, and she blocked it with the only spell she had time to think of at short notice – a mirror shield. The transformed glass that manifested in her hands shattered and burst as Spyro collided with it with all the force of a large bullet. Bianca lost her footing and fell onto her behind in the sandy dunes. Spyro, meanwhile, shot several feel back the way he had came and came to a rolling stop, upon which he was almost immediately back on his feet and glaring at her with a kind of hatred Bianca normally only saw in the eyes of people she'd enslaved under the sorceress's commands.

Not exactly the proudest time of her life. Even now there were days when she came across people who would really rather Spyro had tossed her into the lava pits along with her one-time mistress. Sometimes, Bianca honestly wondered why he hadn't done that. It wasn't as if he hadn't had several opportunities to do so. He could've waited until she opened the door to the sorceress and then flame blasted her to a crisp.

Except Spyro wasn't like that. Spyro was the type of person who would pay a fortune to break random critters who he'd never even met out of prison. Spyro was the kind of person who would travel miles to bring back lost family members. Spyro was the kind of person who would go somewhere to save his own world, and end up saving both of them. She knew this now, but she hadn't known it back then.

Of course, sometimes he was still damned irritating.

_'Don't you ever thin__k__ about __it__?'_

_'About zipping through portals? I try not to, the science that's involved in making these things work would probably burn my brain out.' _

_'Not the _portals_. I mean __that __don't you ever think about, oh, I don't know, carefully and strategically considering a situation before rushing in there with your breath blazing?'_

_'Sure I do. I analyse situations all the time. I analyse them, work out that it's a crazy thing to get involved with and will probably get me killed. And then I go and do it anyway.'_

_'...Logical to the last.' _

_'__T__hat's the logic that saved your home world, 'Anca, I wouldn't be complaining if I were you.__ It's worked for me so far, hasn't it?__' _

_'And what about the day it _stops_ working?' _

_'Well hopefully none of you guys will be around at the time.' _

_'__Hm. You know, t__he most disturbing thi__ng__ is that you said that with a smile on your face__ and absolute sincerity in your voice__.'_

_'__Heh. Come on__the __Rhynocs are waiting.' _

_'Jeeze, I just know I'm going to regret this...' _

The thing about Spyro which made him dangerous –dangerous enough to take on the sorceress– was the fact that he just. Didn't. Give. Up. In fact, nothing short of being locked inside a block of crystal or ice or something else equally solid could keep him from doing whatever it was he had set out to do in the first place. What he lacked in technique he more than made up for with all-out perseverance. Normally, this was one of his qualities Bianca was capable of admiring.

However, as she already knew from experience, being on the opposite end of that determination wasn't a very pleasant experience at all.

The Rhynoc who had somehow managed to get the talisman around Spyro's neck had run off with his companions in a panic as soon s he realised he couldn't _control_ what Spyro did under the talisman's influence. It figured that they had been using it so foolishly in the first place – messing around with it and using it on each other without a single thought of the massive quantities of power the thing produced. Bianca would like to see anyone successfully control Spyro right now. She certainly wasn't capable.

_'It's not here.' _

_'__Yes__ it is, it's got to be, the professor__'__s book said—__'_

_''__The professor's books are a thousand years out of date, Spyro.' _

_'__No, that was just the one book, he sworn that this was where the talisman was last spotted.'_

_'__Well, look, why don't we split up? Look for it separately and... __What__ was that?'_

_'What was what?'_

_'That.'_

_'What? I never heard anything.' _

_'No neither did I, I'm referring to a _feeling_, not a sound. Can't you tell?'_

_'Oh, __well__, actually, now that you mention it... nope. Can't feel a thing.__'_

_'__Oh, ha, very funny, I'm being serious, Spyro, there's magic __down here.'_

_'__When there wasn't just a few seconds ago__?'_

_'__Yes, where there wasn'__t a few seconds ago.'_

Didn't give up. And still wasn't showing any signs of slowing despite the fact he was on his last chance as far as magical tolerance was concerned. Bianca had to duck and roll away from the next fireball.

One element left. Bianca turned, sucked in oxygen and prepared to expel it from her fingertips in a thousand sharp shards of crystallised air.

And then she stopped.

Because she knew fine well what that attack would do to Spyro should it by any chance impact. He obviously didn't have the same concern for her and the next thing Bianca knew she was being sent flying back into a nearly rock wall, caught on a sideward glance of horns.

He charged again before she had a chance to get back to her feet, but not before she had a chance to free her hands from where they were tangled in her cloak. Bianca reached out and grabbed the only transmutation material that she had available –the sand itself. She blew it from her palm while hissing the incantation. In an instant, particles of dust stretched and twitched, wings bursting from their sides in a stream of about a thousand butterflies. As many as there had been grains. This did about as much damage as a sack full of feathers, but they did succeed in forcing Spyro back several feet. Bianca shivered as he lashed out at the bright yellow and orange creatures, not honestly caring how many he killed.

_'Okay, I felt it that time. Seriously. Sounds just like the vibration a Rhynoc makes when it collides with a big rock and makes other rocks fall down on top of it...' _

_'How do you know what a Rhynoc sounds like when it's being... Wait. Stop. Forget I asked. I forgot who I was talking to for a moment there.__'_

_'__W__e should go this way.'_

_But __we already checked down there.'_

_'Hey you're the weird, magically sensing sorceress here; you give me a more exact reading!'_

_'I already told you, it's too big a magical concentration for me to pinpoint I'm picking up traces of wherever it's been in the last twenty four hours or so.__ I still say we should go with the idea of splitting up and...__'_

_'Bianca we're not splitting up. Not now, not down here, and not if what __I__ just felt is even remotely like what I think it was...' _

_'Uh... okay.' _

_'What?'_

_'__S__orry but it actually sounds like you're admitting there could be something out there which you can't handle. _

_'Which is why you should totally be doing what __I__ say and going in _that_ direction.' _

_'Spyro,__ really we—__eep!' _

_'Hey, hey it's alright, it's just a Rhynoc. Ha. What did I tell ya?__ I said they were down here, didn't I.' _

Bianca pulled herself to her feet, drew down the sleeves of her cloak and scowled. Alright. Enough. The creatures of Avalar had a saying: sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

Or in this case, mind control with mind control.

_'I'm not unlimited you know. __Sometimes y__ou act like I know everything there is to know about every magical object on the planet.' _

_'Okay fine, so clear it up for me, Bianca. What do you know?' _

_'__...A few things.__'_

_'A few things__ like __what__?' _

_'Like __stuff__ that would blow your mind if you only __knew__ about them, Dragon.' _

_'Yeah, your only problem is controlling it__ right__?' _

_'Oh__ very funny. __Let's see you concentrate on forming a fully fledged creature out of an inanimate object while muttering incantations backwards, frontwards and with the vowels missing at the same time.__'_

Bianca didn't wait for Spyro to charge again, instead, she drew the deepest breath she could, and spoke.

'Spyro. **Sit. Down. **_**Now**_.'

Bianca was fairly sure her voice hit a tenor which didn't actually exist in real life. The air trembled, her lungs burned, and her hands tingled as if every spell she had was burning in her fingertips. Then every ounce of it bounced back up through her arms, into her throat, as was echoed through her voice directly at Spyro.

Spyro sat down. Very suddenly. On his haunches.

_'I'm not kidding,__ Bianca, a few things like _what_?' _

_'Heh. Hope you never have to find out, Dragon.'_

_'Well if you've got any abilities __we__ don't know about then why didn't you use them on the sorceress, huh?'_

_'__I had my reasons, I'm sorry, are we tracking down a bunch of talisman-powered Rhynocs here or chatting about my magical potential?'_

_'Both__, I can bash Rhynocs and talk at the same time, just call me multitalented.__But really__, all the sorceress ever used was fancy magical bursts, and I think she stole half of _that_ power from the dragon eggs.' _

_'I didn't ste__—__ get all my magic from the sorceress, you know.' _

_'__What d__id you just say?' _

_'__Get,__ I said _get_. There are other things that I can do. She didn't pick me out because I couldn't do anything.' _

The talisman glared a hot white in colour.

Bianca kept muttering under her breath, practically making the spell up as she went along. The air around the both of them felt as if it were throwing a fit. Control spell struggled against control spell, and unlike the talisman, Bianca knew she couldn't keep her magic going indefinitely. The problem with spells that required speech, as so many of her spells did was that you sometimes had to _keep_ talking in order for it to continue working. Bianca's ability with constant control incantations only went so far, so she was already stumbling over her words, trying to keep the spell constant and solid, as she approached Spyro and reached out for the talisman.

Carefully, slowly, as if the spell might snap at any second (which it probably would if she lost her concentration), Bianca closed one hand around the watch's chain and ripped it from Spyro's throat. She dropped it to the dirt, uttered another spell under her breath and clutched her fingers at the air. The surface of the watch quickly crystallised, a literal block of ice forming around it, keeping its magic contained.

And Spyro... shivered. Actually shivered, the way most creatures did when they were afraid. In truth he was probably just shaking off the residues of talisman magic, but still... 'Bianca?'

'Got it in one, short stuff,' Bianca smiled, unable to keep a sigh of relief from creeping into her tone. She then watched, slightly amused, as Spyro did several three-sixties, looking around in search of the enemy he had been charging at, just before the Talisman's power kicked in.

'I... where's the... Alright, I give, what exactly was I doing just then?'

'Trying to kill me, I think, but don't worry,' Bianca consciously deepened her tone ever so slightly, sending the magic tingling from her throat. '**I have it covered**.'

'Oh,' Spyro blinked slowly, several times. 'Oh-kay, I didn't know you could do that.'

'No, well, it's not something I like to brag about. Besides, it's illegal in thirty four states,' Bianca reached out a hand. Even though he had no hand of his own to take it with, it was, she figured, the gesture which counted. 'Lucky we're in the one where it isn't right now. Desperate times, desperate measures, and all that.'

'Desperate... what desperate measures, I—' Spyro paused, peering at her in sudden interest. 'Hey, hold on, Agent Nine has a bet on about something like this, doesn't he? Which of us won?'

Bianca rolled her eyes before she could prevent herself, trying to ignore the distinctive pain in her back from being shoved against the wall. Spyro seemed to be pretending that the magical burns _she'd_ given _him_ weren't there, 'Well considering that I'm still _alive_ I'd have to say it was me.'

'Oh.' Spyro couldn't help but look just a tad disappointed at that, and for a moment Bianca could only stare at him in confusion, wondering how he could possibly not feel freaked about all this. 'Ah... sorry?'

'Well next time you think that "charging in" is the best--' Bianca's answer was interrupted by a munching sound and they turned to discover Sparx had made his reappearance, smiling to himself and chomping casually on one of the butterflies Bianca had created as if nothing had ever happened. Bianca swallowed what she was about to say in light of the "what have I missed?" type expression on the dragonfly's face. Spyro chuckled and tapped the frozen Talisman with his claw.

'Come on;' Bianca sighed. 'Let's get that thing out of here already.'

Spyro shook his head a few times before looking up at her, the expression on his face was a half smirk, half puzzled frown, exactly the same way he often looked when faced with a conundrum. For a second, Bianca could hardly believe this dragon had been trying to kill her less than sixty seconds ago.

'Great, you're carrying it.'

Bianca looked at the frozen watch distastefully, deciding then and there that she really hated talismans. 'Hey, why me? I froze the thing!'

'Exactly. Bianca, it's a block of freezing cold ice and I'm a dragon, we don't like cold.'

Bianca snorted. 'Oh sure, any excuse, some of your people live in _i__ce caves_.'

'Well... I have another excuse –no opposable thumbs, see?'

'I'm sure that didn't stop you carrying the _other_ fourteen talismans out of the realm.'

'I had a magic book! Anyway, magic versus dragon power? Come on, I bet I was goin' easy on ya...'

'Huh. Yeah, or maybe Agent Nine owes Sheila twenty gems.'

'_Definitely_ goin' easy. I bet even my amulet-possessed self is a big fan of Sheila.'

'_Excuse_ me?'

'Excuse yourself. Still, sorry I nearly killed ya, I totally didn't mean it.'

'Oh believe me, dragon, you were nowhere close to succeeding.'

'Yeah _sure_ I wasn't.'

Bianca grit her teeth halfway between a smile and a scowl. The old magic was still trembling and aching in her throat, reminding her of exactly why she tried her best not to use that particular form of magical attack.

The only thing she hadn't learned from the sorceress. And that was the thing she used to put a stop to the rampage of the legendary Spyro. It figured. It also figured that he'd be just as nonchalant afterwards as he had been before. Some people even said it was part of his... charm.

Killing Spyro, Bianca reminded herself, was not an option.

But that slip of paper in her almanac didn't say anything whatsoever about turning him into a rabbit.

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End file.
